Category Archives: Baroness Murphy

Angels dancing on the head of a pin

Baroness Murphy 02/11/2011 – 10:31 am

The Health and Social Care Bill committee stages started last week http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201011/ldhansrd/text/111025-0002.htm and will continue this afternoon. We haven’t got past clause 1 yet. It was probably the most frustrating debate I’ve ever attended. It is all about whether the Secretary of State for Health should ‘provide’, or ‘promote’ and or ‘secure […]

‘Adopt a Lord’ is counterproductive

Baroness Murphy 22/10/2011 – 4:27 pm

Following on Lord Tyler's exchanges with Zoe Williams in the Guardian, I have to confess to being increasingly alienated by mass e-mails and letters about the Health and Social Care Bill. We have always had mass mailings from union members and religious organisations on certain issues but I first noticed I was receiving large numbers of misinformed and politically naive mailings during the Higher […]

Scientific Advice to Government

Baroness Murphy 19/10/2011 – 12:21 pm

The House of Lords Science & Technology Select Committee inquiry into the activities of Chief Scientific Advisers (CSAs), which will shortly begin deliberations. In preparation for this the Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE), which quite rightly advocates for better scientific advice to inform policy making, have examined the current state of play for existing government departmen […]

Outreach in Prospect

Baroness Murphy 14/10/2011 – 3:08 pm

Like most peers I try and get out and about to keep in touch with what's happening in my old field, in my case in mental health services, by speaking about parliament and in return listening to staff concerns. It doesn't give the full picture. For one thing these visits don't include patients and their families, I have to go elsewhere to reach them, but it's a valuable snapshot of clinical profess […]

Just Eat Less?

Baroness Murphy 08/10/2011 – 9:18 am

So I finally made the front page of the Sun, somewhat unexpectedly, see http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/politics/3857501/Tory-peer-tells-British-fatties-to-brjust-eat-less.html Lord Crisp’s debate on non-communicable diseases on Thursday which I mentioned in my last post included a contribution from Lord McColl, an old colleague and friend from our days together at Guy’s Hospital, […]